A recent advertisement that featured Sidney Crosby and the hockey products of Reebok really struck me.  The impact of the player and dreams of NHL takes the family from the Canadian provinces to the various cities that have youth and junior Hockey in the United States.  So why do I agree that life devoted to Hockey is time well spent?

  1) Hockey can bring excitement to a child and the sense of intensity that lacks in video games.  It is the one remaining sport where the boy and man can be a true, genuine man.  Yes an equal person to others as well in the community .  When the goallight is on or a hit and check prevents a score it is as the Yardbirds sing "M-A-N. MAN."  In the purest form of sport.  The family sacrifices so much for the young athlete so it must be time well spent.  

  2) Joseph Campbell wrote of the hero in myth.  About the the role of the hero in Greek and Roman culture.  Now I am in no way comparing  hockey to the Trojan War and the epic literature it spawned. I am writing that Wayne Gretzky's hero was Gordie Howe, Sidney Crosby's hero of hockey was Mario Lemieux, and who knows who Sidney Crosby will inspire.  "Hero" in its  simplest form is the feats of Achilles and the life of Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky.  The people of the world young and old search for hero; now who people chose to emulate is their choice.  Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby are not bad choices.    And after the hockey game who would not think that a sporting event on the scale of the Trojan War had just taken place.  In Michigan and Canada there is a sense of the North, it is  lakes in the winter season that bring us out of the warmth of houses.  The culture of the North is inspired by the  heroes of hockey.

  3) On ponds and homemade ice rinks in the backyard kids shovel snow with friends and parents watch with gloved hands holding hot chocolate as the  neighborhood gathers to see the hockey game start.  With children having fun playing hockey and parents watching sports together it does make for time well spent. 

-LGRW